It’s certainly hard to resist the siren song of online deals on Amazon Prime day, so while you’re at it, why not also grab a deal on a great tech conference – TechCrunch Disrupt SF. Today only, we’re releasing a limited number of two-for-one Disrupt SF tickets – the lowest price available on admission to our flagship event this September 18-20. What does admission… Read More
One thing is clear: The market for startup equity is on firmer footing now than it was three months ago. With two successive quarters of growth, both in the number of deals struck and the amount of money invested, as well as a growing appetite on the part of public markets for shares in venture-backed startups, there’s reason for cautious optimism going into the second half of this year. Read More
Hyperledger Fabric, the open source distributed ledger project from Hyperledger, reached a significant milestone today when it released version 1.0. Hyperledger Fabric is a distributed ledger, an open source blockchain. The blockchain has been typically used to prove ownership of digital currency, but Brian Behlendorf, the executive director at Hyperledger says that this project is more focused… Read More
Siri remains the most popular virtual assistant with 41.4 million monthly active users in the U.S., according to a new report from measurement firm Verto Analytics out this morning, but it has seen a 15 percent decline since last year – or 7.3 million monthly users. In addition, the study found that engagement with Siri has also dropped by nearly half during this period, from 21 percent… Read More
Lemonade has raised $60 million to date with the thesis that insurance companies can cut costs and automate more of their processes if they can somehow incentivize users to act less selfishly and commit less fraud. Traditionally insurance companies take the spread between premiums and claims as profit, but Lemonade aims to donate unclaimed premiums to charity once a year in a… Read More
Every internet company these days has a plan for connecting people who don’t otherwise have reliable connectivity – Microsoft’s play will utilize unused TV broadcast channels, also called ‘white spaces,’ to get broadband internet to rural communities in the U.S. The New York Times reports that Microsoft’s pilot project will include offering white space… Read More
Happy Amazon Prime Day. Sure, it’s a crass, made up holiday created with the sole purpose of fueling the cold, heartless engine of capitalism — but doesn’t that description apply to most holidays? Amazon kicked off the annual event in 2015 and managed to surpass its own Black Friday sales in that first year, thanks to some pretty deep discounts. Like Amazon itself, however,… Read More
Food delivery is far from perfect. From big players like Grubhub to newer companies like Caviar, the combination of perfectly cooked food and delivery logistics is one that is pretty damn easy to mess up. Just take a look at Maple*. Ando, the David Chang-led delivery-only restaurant, has spent the last 14 months trying to change all that. And not without a few bumps in the road. But today,… Read More
Online harassment is an all-too-common occurrence in the U.S., with 41 percent of adults saying they have experienced harassment online, and 66 percent of people say they’ve seen it happen to others, according to a new Pew Research Center study. The most common form of online harassment is offensive name-calling, according to the study. It’s worth noting that while men are… Read More
Tovala, a $399 smart oven out of Y Combinator promising to perfectly cook ready-made meals in under 30 minutes is finally available for purchase.
It can bake, boil and steam meals at up to 550 degrees Fahrenheit in 10 to 30 minutes and works with either prepackaged Tovala meals or your own food. However, the real money maker for the startup will be in the meal delivery service.
It’s a… Read More
Whatever any country leader says about banning travel or shutting down the movement of people, the world is accelerating its globalisation and that means people move around. Duh. Talent is now global, and the industry that helps that talent move is huge. Thus it is that Move Guides — a SaaS platform for employee relocation which launched in London but has grown internationally —… Read More
Just in time for Halloween 2017, Netflix will offer up all new episodes of its hit series Stranger Things: We now know that we’re going to get the second season episodes on October 27, confirmed via a poster shared by Netflix on Twitter depicting the show’s four protagonists staring down an ominous looking storm. We’ve seen a trailer for the show already (embedded below) and… Read More
Tesla is adding over 100 new service centers around the world, and putting over 350 new mobile service vans to work with its roaming fleet for house and work calls. The goal is to increase its service capacity threefold overall, as a way to help get ready for the new demand that’s going to flow from the many new Model 3 customers joining the Tesla owner pool in the future. The automaker… Read More
When the apocalypse finally arrives, those with the booksmarts will be the upperymen. Maybe somebody you know will be the readerwriter and maybe somebody you know will learn how to make the brandywine and maybe you’ll have a bakerman among you but who will be the mather? The mather will be the one with the Slide Rule watch from Caliper, and friends, the mather can be you. This… Read More
Sendence, a new startup based in New York City, announced a $1.5 million seed round today. The company is working on a platform for simplifying deployment of real-time applications. Investors include Boldstart Ventures, Greycroft, Contour Venture Partners, Notation Capital and Resolute Ventures. As company CEO and co-founder Vid Jain sees it, more companies are hiring data scientists to… Read More
Allurion, a Boston-based startup offering a non-invasive gastric balloon by swallowing a pill, has gained $27 million in Series C funding from previous investor Romulus Capital, with new participation from Cogepa Investments and IDO Investments, an innovation firm based in Oman. Read More
Payments provider PayPal has over the years made it easier for a wide range of businesses to accept payments from customers at home and abroad. Now with its Global Sellers initiative, the company is making cross-border commerce easier for merchants using its payment services. Read More
If you’re just now hearing that GoPro is shipping the Fusion, chances are you’re not on the list. The company selected nine organizations and one travel blogger to be the first to receive the camera company’s spherical camera. This pilot program clearly shows that GoPro expects the Fusion to be mainly used by professional content creators and brands instead of moms and dads… Read More
Lyft now makes it easier for business travelers to expense the trips they take for work – rides taken under a Business Profile within the Lyft app can now be automatically forwarded to a number of expense management systems, including Expensify, Chrome River, Concur, Nexonia, Zoho, Abacus and Xpenditure. The auto forwarding basically just takes a step out of the process, but it’s a… Read More
It appears that companies in the meal kit space aren’t out of fresh ideas just yet with news that Marley Spoon, a startup that originally hails from Berlin but has since made its focus the U.S., is launching what it claims to be the “first affordable meal kit” offering. Read More
